id: 153612
accession number: 1987.142
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.142
updated: 2023-01-11 06:16:42.121000
The Idolatry of Solomon, 1622–23. Pietro da Cortona (Italian, 1596–1669). Pen and brown ink, point of brush and black ink, brush and brown wash, and white and blue gouache, framing lines in brown ink; sheet: 24.8 x 43.3 cm (9 3/4 x 17 1/16 in.); secondary support: 25.5 x 44.1 cm (10 1/16 x 17 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1987.142
title: The Idolatry of Solomon
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1622–23
creation date earliest: 1622
creation date latest: 1623
current location:
creditline: John L. Severance Fund
copyright:
---
culture: Italy, 17th century
technique: Pen and brown ink, point of brush and black ink, brush and brown wash, and white and blue gouache, framing lines in brown ink
department: Drawings
collection: DR - Italian
type: Drawing
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
---
CREATORS
* Pietro da Cortona (Italian, 1596–1669) - artist
---
measurements: Sheet: 24.8 x 43.3 cm (9 3/4 x 17 1/16 in.); Secondary Support: 25.5 x 44.1 cm (10 1/16 x 17 3/8 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
description: brown laid paper, laid down on cream(3) laid paper
watermarks:
inscriptions:
inscription: verso of secondary support, upper center, in graphite: 44; center, in blue ballpoint: Maria Elvira Celia Mendez de Bernasconi [underlined] / 1977; center, in graphite: Paolo Farinato; center, in graphite: [illegible]; lower left, in graphite: [illegible, partially masked]
translation:
remark:
---
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: The Year in Review for 1987
opening date: 1988-02-24T05:00:00
The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
title: Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650
opening date: 1991-08-27T04:00:00
Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 20, 1991).
title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00
Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
---
LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
---
PROVENANCE
Capitaine C. Prayer (1826-1900), Milan (Lugt 2044)
date: ca. 1900
footnotes:
citations:
de Bernasconi family, Buenas Aires
date: ca. 1900
footnotes:
citations:
by descent to Marià Elvira Celia Méndez de Bernasconi (1927-2005), Buenos Aires (Lugt 5374)
date: ?-1987
footnotes:
citations:
Christie's London, 1 April 1987, no. 66.
date: 1987
footnotes:
citations:
with Kate Ganz, Ltd, London
date: 1987
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1987-
footnotes:
citations:
---
fun fact:
Pietro da Cortona completed this drawing and the six frescoes related to it for a prominent patron and palazzo in Rome when he was just 27 years old.
digital description:
Pietro da Cortona was one of the most successful and active fresco painters in Rome in the mid-1600s. This drawing is a preparatory sheet—highly worked-up with many different mediums—for one of the artist's six frescoes portraying the story of Solomon commissioned by the Roman nobleman Asdrubale Mattei (1556-1638) for the gallery of his Palazzo Mattei di Giove. Reflecting the artist's as well as his patron's interest in classical antiquity, Cortona combined a classical relief-like composition with specific references to Roman objects and architectural elements in the composition. The subject represents a foolish episode from Solomon's life, when he was lured into the worship of idols by the "foreign" women with whom he kept company.
wall description:
The Idolatry of Solomon represents Solomon's worship of idols caused by his love of many foreign women who turned "away his heart to follow their gods" (I Kings 11: 1-8). This drawing is a final compositional study for the ceiling fresco in the Palazzo Mattei di Giove in Rome.
---
RELATED WORKS
---
CITATIONS
Christie, Manson & Woods. Fine Old Master Drawings. London: 1987.
page number: Mentioned: p. 45, under n. 66; Reproduced: p.44, n. 66
url:
"The Year in Review for 1987." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 31-71.
page number: Mentioned: p. 68, n. 120
url:
"Museum Acquisitions." Drawing 10, no. 1 (May-June 1988): 17-18.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 17
url:
Merz, Jörg Martin. Pietro da Cortona: Der Aufstieg zum führenden Maler im barocken Rom. Tübingen: Ernst Wasmuth, 1991.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 25, 45, 69-71, 145; Reproduced: n. 99
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
page number: Reproduced: p. 88
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991
DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 10, 50-51, 285; Reproduced: p. 51, n. 15
url:
---
IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.142/1987.142_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.142/1987.142_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.142/1987.142_full.tif